Tag Archives: iPad magazine apps

The Saturday Evening Post has recently launched an iPad edition, which is available on Newsstand now. Touted as ‘the trusted voice of American culture’ the magazine has a rich history – and was well-known years ago in part for its Norman Rockwell cover illustrations.

I have to admit I didn’t realize The Saturday Evening Post was still being published until I saw news of its iPad version. I very rarely visit real-life newsstands these days, so that’s my excuse for not realizing this title was still around.

Here’s a bit of the App Store intro for The Saturday Evening Post iPad edition:

The Saturday Evening Post reports on the who, what, and why of today with a nod to the past and an eye on the future. The trusted voice of American culture is now available with bonus content and enhanced features including hot links, audio and video highlights, easy browsing capabilities, personalization settings, multiple viewing options, search and zoom capabilities, and much more.
Each issue delivers in-depth, unbiased articles covering today’s most relevant issues. Discover proven health advice; money- and time-saving ideas; and delicious, healthy recipes for your family. Then relax with inspiring success stories, iconic celebrity interviews, fiction from America’s top writers, plus humor, cartoons, and art you can only find in the Post.

The app is free but you need to buy individual issues of the magazine or sign up for a subscription. Issues cost $3.99 and subscription options are as follows:

• Single issue subscription for $1.99, automatically renewed until cancelled
• 1 year (6 issues) subscription available for $9.99, automatically renewed until cancelled

New York Magazine has relaunched / reinvented its iPad edition today. The App Store description for the new app is far from shy about singing its praises:

This is New York on the iPad—it’s not like anything else! Download our app for FREE and get the Best of New York feature—our obsessively vetted annual guide—for FREE!The culture-affecting editorial that launches phenomena, defines decades, starts movements and endorses demographics is at your fingertips. This app features every page in the print edition enhanced with up-to-the-minute reporting from nymag.com. Simultaneously get the day’s big stories from Daily Intelligencer, Vulture, Grub Street, and the Cut, as well as the digital version of the magazine that’s been redesigned to take full advantage of the iPad.

The app now lets you switch between free ‘Today’s News’ content and full weekly issues of New York Magazine, which are just called ‘Magazine’ in the sort of split UI.

All the content is available to current print and digital subscribers once they login in the app. The Today’s News content is free to everyone. There’s also a free preview issue of the weekly magazine available to download. The preview issue is the 2013 edition of the annual Best of New York feature.

College Life is a new iPad magazine aimed squarely at university students. It’s also touted as the ‘ultimate, uncensored monthly college publication for the iPad’. Here’s a little more of its App Store intro:

We cover real topics that affect campus communities worldwide. We offer academic and career advice, inspiring campus stories, answers to even your most intimate questions, sports coverage, hilarious content from all over the web, and much more!We are committed to providing the best, most widely read digital publication for college kids everywhere. We listen closely to our subscribers’ needs and provide content that they want to read. Enjoy the FIRST magazine on the newsstand to specifically publish for the college demographic!

It’s been roughly a million years or so since I was college age, but its interesting to see an iPad title aimed at college students so I wanted to give this one a quick look after being approached by its developers.

Issue 5 of swipe magazine has just hit the iPad App Store this week. It’s free and jam-packed with great iPad and iOS game reviews, accessory and app roundups, and more. Just in case you’re not familiar with swipe, here’s a bit of its App Store introduction:

This is the only dedicated magazine that focuses on the best App Store content, and which has been built from the ground up as a true interactive digital experience for iPad.Every issue is packed with only the very best games, apps, and accessories as rated by the leading independent review sites of the iPhone Alliance – a genuine ‘who’s who’ of the iOS media so you know they are opinions you can trust.

I’m a regular contributor to swipe and very proud to be part of the team on this magazine – so you can choose to take my thoughts on it with some grains of salt if you feel the need. I can tell you that as a reader I very much look forward to seeing each new monthly issue.

Issue 4 of swipe magazine for the iPad is out today. For those of you who haven’t yet heard of swipe magazine, here’s a little Intro via its App Store page:

This is the only dedicated magazine that focuses on the best App Store content, and which has been built from the ground up as a true interactive digital experience for iPad. (An iPhone version is coming soon.)Every issue is packed with only the very best games, apps, and accessories as rated by the leading independent review sites of the iPhone Alliance – a genuine ‘who’s who’ of the iOS media so you know they are opinions you can trust.

This latest issue is chock full of great iOS game and app reviews on a number of notable recent releases – including one of my big-time favorites, Battle of the Bulge.

Issue Number 2 of swipe mag hit the App Store today. I should mention right off the bat that I’m a contributor to this title, so you can take my comments on it with however many grains of salt you like.

Swipe mag is touted as the essential digital publication for iOS fans. Here’s a little more of its App Store intro:

This is the only dedicated magazine that focuses on the best App Store content, and which has been built from the ground up as a true interactive digital experience for iPad. (An iPhone version is coming soon.)Every issue is packed with only the very best games, apps, and accessories as rated by the leading independent review sites of the iPhone Alliance – a genuine ‘who’s who’ of the iOS media so you know they are opinions you can trust.

Swipe is now a Newsstand compatible title and is also now on a regular monthly publishing schedule and offering subscriptions. Just in case you’re wondering, I’m just a contributing author – not part of the publishing team and not earning anything on issues or subscriptions sold.

Yes it is. The Magazine: For geeks like us, to use its full App Store title, is very cool indeed. It’s the latest creation from Marco Arment, the co-founder of Tumblr and the creator of the superb Instapaper app. And it’s a unique, refreshing approach to what an iPad magazine, or just a magazine in general, can be.

The New Yorker Magazine iPad edition, one of the leading iPad magazine titles, has been updated to support the new iPad’s retina display.

Retina support starts with the April 23 issue of The New Yorker for the iPad (available as of yesterday, April 16).

I’ve only taken a very quick look at the new issue, so I won’t offer any thoughts on how sharp it looks with the new retina support. I do want to note that it appears that issues sizes may not be drastically larger (as feared) with support for the retina display. I did a quick check of the April 9 issue size and it weighed in at 137MB. The new April 23 issue is 152MB – hardly a substantial increase.

I’m guessing the issue size bump-up may be smaller for The New Yorker due to the fact it’s not a photo-heavy, or even very image-heavy, title (apart from ads).

For any of you who have The New Yorker on the new iPad, what are your thoughts on the new issue and retina support?

WIRED Magazine for iPad has been updated yesterday, to Version 3.7. The single, headline change in this update is support for the new iPad’s retina display – starting with the April 2012 issue.

So the good news here is of course that one of the best iPad magazine titles now supports the incredible new retina display. I downloaded the April issue earlier and it looks better than ever. Wired is one of my favorite iPad magazines, and one of the very few I subscribe to, so it’s great to see it updated for the retina display.

The not so good news is that just as expected, the issue size for the new issue with retina support has grown quite a lot. The March Issue of Wired on the iPad weighed in at 366MB. The April issue, the first with retina support, is 533MB. That’s a pretty substantial increase – especially as Wired issue sizes had come down a bit last year from their early enormous sizes. Now they’re going in the opposite direction again.

I hope that the publishers of Wired and other iPad magazine and newspaper titles are working hard at not just adding retina support but also finding ways to control and reduce their issue sizes. It will certainly be interesting to see how this plays out in coming months.